Term / Half-term 

Main topics / units 

Key knowledge & skills 

Autumn 1 

Hooks and Riffs  

Hooks and Riffs explores music based on repeated musical patterns through the genres of Popular Music (Hooks and Riffs) and Music from the Western Classical Tradition (Ostinatos). 

The unit aims to combine the inter-related musical strands of Performing: Playing and Singing; Creating - Composing and Improvising and Critical Engagement: Listening and Appraising.   

The music theory focus of this unit is on treble and bass clef symbols as an indication of pitch and musical repeat markings and symbols.  Simple rhythmic and melodic dictation exercises are provided in both graphic and staff notations based on repeated musical patterns.  The DOITNOW and Plenary Presentations contain a wealth of activities based on repeated musical patterns which allow pupils to consolidate their skills, knowledge and understanding of the unit.   

Autumn 2 

Reggae Music 

This unit begins by exploring the origins of Reggae music from Mento, Ska and Rock Steady and looks at the famous Reggae musician, Bob Marley, and his influence on a worldwide audience. 

The unit uses two Reggae songs as case studies to explore the musical features of the genre: “Yellow Bird”: a Caribbean song, and “Three Little Birds”.  

Pupils learn about the different textural elements that make up a Reggae song: bass line riffs, melodic hooks, offbeat chords, syncopated rhythms and the vocal melody line. 

Pupils harmonic language is extended and developed constructing chords I, II, IV and V in F Major (“Yellow Bird”) and chords I, IV and V in A Major (“Three Little Birds), performing these in the traditional offbeat Reggae style. 

The unit ends with the option of an extended Reggae arrangement of “Yellow Bird” and a brief exploration into the themes of Reggae lyrics with pupils creating their own short set of lyrics using Jamaican speech-style on a specific subject e.g. Black Lives Matter, School etc. or by taking a well-known melody or song (of their choice) and researching the lyrics, chords etc. and creating a Reggae arrangement of it using the different textural layers explored during the unit. 

Spring 1 

Variations 

The unit begins by exploring basic ways to vary an existing theme using the elements of music and simple musical devices in terms of changing: pitch (octave), timbre and sonority, articulation, tempo, dynamics, rhythm and adding: pedal, drone, ostinato, rhythm, decoration (passing notes).    

This is then developed by progressively exploring and using more complex variation techniques including: augmentation, diminution (revision of note values), canon/round and adding a counter melody, before pupils learn how to vary a theme using changes in tonality and investigate how inversion, retrograde and retrograde inversion can be applied to a theme as more advanced variation techniques.   

Three themes are given (merely as suggestions): two traditionally used themes when exploring variations: Frère Jacques (single line melody) and Twinkle, Twinkle (single line melody with chord markings) and for something more ‘modern’, the theme from Faded by Alan Walker (2-part melody and accompaniment).  

The unit ends with optional lesson pathways of an ‘Extended Theme and Variations Project’ (continuing work towards a completed and refined set of theme and variations or by exploring another of the themes or using a more complex theme from the media and using skills, knowledge and understanding of variation techniques from the unit, using this theme to create a set of refined variations), or by exploring Ground Bass Variations.   

Spring 2 

Jazz Music 

This unit develops pupils’ understanding of the key musical features of Jazz and Blues, exploring chords, chord patterns and how improvisation is used within Jazz and Blues genres.   

The history, origins and development of the Blues and different types and styles of Jazz can be interspersed throughout the unit in as much depth as the teacher deems appropriate.  Instruments, timbres, and sonorities used in Jazz and Blues are also explored and the different roles between Frontline and Rhythm Section instruments within Jazz and Swing / Big Bands.   

The characteristic 12-Bar Blues chord pattern makes a traditional starting point for the unit with pupils learning chords I, IV and V as triads in C Major before pupils extend these into seventh chords triads and turn these into a Walking Bass Line.  The Blues Scale introduces a new melodic resource on which to improvise using ostinato, riffs and fills within the 12-Bar Blues.   

The (adapted) Swing / Big Band piece “In the Mood” provides a case study into the 12-Bar Blues and textural layers of Swing and includes performance and improvisation activities consolidating knowledge, skills and understanding of Jazz and Blues from previous lessons.   

The unit ends with optional lesson pathways to either explore Modal Jazz, or Ragtime (“The Entertainer”) in more detail.  

Summer 1 

All About the Bass 

Bass Clef Reading and Notation forms the foundation of this unit which explores a range of commonly used Bass Line Patterns within a variety of different types, styles, and genres of music from different times and places.   

Pupils begin by exploring the various meanings of the term ‘bass’ before looking at the Bass Clef and the names of the notes in the lines, spaces and ledger lines on the Bass Stave.  Instruments and voices which use the Bass Clef are referred to throughout the unit.   

Bass Line Riffs, as short, memorable, repeated Bass Line Patterns are explored as pupils realize and perform some famous Bass Line Riffs from Bass Clef Notation from the genres of Rap and/or Hip-Hop. 

Pupils then explore Walking Bass Line Patterns in the genres of Jazz, Blues, Rhythm and Blues and Rock and Roll, constructing a Walking Bass Line using Chords I, IV and V using notes of the chords (root, third and fifth) and ‘extra’ Passing Notes, performing a Rock and Roll-style song constructed on a Walking Bass Line and using Bass Line Riffs.   

The concept of prolonging a Bass Line chord by performing the notes separately, using Arpeggios, Broken Chords and Alberti Bass Line patterns, are explored through a range of music from different genres including Classical and Modern Solo Piano Music, Surf Rock, Popular Songs and Rock and Roll, all with short, structured performing, composing, and listening and appraising activities.  

Finally, pupils explore “pedals”, and how a Bass Line note can be sustained or repeated over a long period of time, as a pedal note, exploring their use in Baroque Music, Organ and Keyboard Toccatas, Jazz, Popular Song and Film Music. 

Summer 2 

Saharan Sounds 

 This unit explores the main rhythmic musical features and devices used in African music, particularly the African drumming tradition of West Africa.   

Pupils explore the different African Drum performance techniques and the effect this has on the timbre and sonority of the sounds produced.  They then move on to perform and create, by composing and improvising simple rhythms and, using repetition, turn these into cyclic rhythms.  These are then combined and overlapped to create polyrhythms and a polyrhythmic texture: a characteristic of much African music.   

Pupils explore the effect of syncopation on rhythms learning about its offbeat feel and its emphasis on weaker beats before exploring how call and response is used in African music, again through creating, c composing, performing and improvising their own call and response rhythms and the role of the Master Drummer.   

Pupils explore African musical instruments and the different timbres and sonorities that these produce before combining their learning of cyclic and polyrhythms, syncopation and call and response into an African-inspired piece.  Single line rhythm notation and note values are revised from prior learning and extended through knowledge of dotted and tied notes.   

Type of assessment

Approx. frequency / when

What it is used for

Classwork

One session per week

To check the key musical facts and vocabulary, and correct misconceptions.

Composing Assignments

Once per 2/3 weeks

To reinforce learning via a practical musicianship task

Listening Assignments

About once per half-term

To reinforce learning through a listening task

Performing assessments

End of each unit / term

To give an overall picture of progress across the unit / term

Future Learning

Pupils could go on to:

·          Make notated maps or scores of popular songs, illustrating the hooks used, when and where they happen in the song.

·         Use their hooks and riffs to develop their own compositions, using music technology.

• Make links to music from other cultures and traditions that use riff and ostinato-based structures, such as Balinese Gamelan and other World Music.

Enrichment

Learning could be enriched through:

·           Whole classes performing their performances or compositions in assembly to their own or another year group, and in school concerts.

·           Workshop visits to a Gamelan orchestra.

·          Performers visiting the school, and pupils listening to, and evaluating their songs with particular reference to the use of hooks and riffs.

Future Learning

Pupils could go on to:

• Explore and find out more about Rastafarianism.
• Explore songs by more contemporary Reggae bands such as UB40 or explore influences of Reggae on popular music genres of today. 

Enrichment

Learning could be enriched through:

• Watching further (suitable!) live performances of Reggae artists and bands such as Bob Marley and The Wailers in concert.
• Inviting local musicians or Reggae groups into school to perform live to pupils. 

Future Learning

Pupils could go on to:

• Create their own original theme (assumes prior knowledge of melody writing) for their own instrument or choice of instruments and to create a stylistic and refined set of musical variations (using notation or detailed descriptions of what has been changed or added musically). 
• Perform a version of “Time Lapse” by Michael Nyman which is constructed on a GROUND BASS with increasing textural layers added on each repetition. 
• Create a composition, for one or more performers, called “REFLECTIONS”.  The music should build up by repeating some musical ideas in inversion, some in retrograde and perhaps some in retrograde inversion; each of these devices being a kind of ‘musical reflection’. 
• Listen to further examples of Theme and Variations e.g., Variations - A. Lloyd Weber

Enrichment

Learning could be enriched through:

·          Watching and listening, or attending live musical concerts, that include “Theme and Variations” music.

·          Listening to Balinese and Javanese Gamelan music in which embellishment (heterophonic textures) and variation techniques are central features of the musical style.

·          Performing Theme and Variations from the unit within a school concert or assembly setting. 

(More future Learning)

“Simple Gifts” from ‘Appalachian Spring’ Copland

“When I am Laid in Earth” from ‘Dido & Aeneas’ Purcell

Symphony No.4, 4th Movement – Brahms

Passacaglia in C Minor - J. S. Bach

Harpsichord Suites No.5 in E, Last Movement & No.7 in B flat, Passacaglia - Handel

Future Learning

Pupils could go on to:

·         Programme blues backing tracks using ICT, apps. or music sequencing software for further practice.

·         Create a Blues Melody line based on a given 12-bar Blues Chord sequence and lyrics in C Major.

·         Explore the subject matter and AAB form of Blues lyrics in a range of Blues and Blues-inspired songs before creating their own Blues lyrics to a given 12-bar Blues melody and chords, perhaps on a given subject matter e.g., Black Lives Matter.

• Listen to big-band recordings from the 1930’s-1940’s (especially the Count Basie and Duke Ellington bands) for good examples of ostinatos, riffs, and improvisation.

Enrichment

Learning could be enriched through:

·         Inviting professional jazz musicians into the school to direct workshops.

·         Attending concerts by well-known jazz and blues performers.

·         Inviting small jazz groups to perform for the school.

·          Watching videos of jazz workshops e.g., Wynton Marsalis.

Future Learning

Pupils could go on to:

·         Perform keyboard or piano duets with both parts in the bass clef e.g., Funeral March from Symphony No.7 – Beethoven or other pieces which use double bass clef notation. 

·         Add solo improvisations using the notes of the Blues Scale over Walking Bass Lines within the 12-Bar Blues structure (if not done before when exploring Jazz and Blues or a useful recap and revision).

·         Create their own short (2-bar) Bass Line Riffs recording using bass clef notation and performing on a suitable voice/tone/timbre.

·         Create either an Alberti Bass Line pattern to accompany a simple melody (with or without given Chords e.g. Chord I, III, IV, V and VI) recording and notating using bass clef notation or create a melody to go ‘over the top’ of a given Alberti Bass Line pattern (with or without chord names). 

·         Perform further parts from “Classical” solo piano sonatas or sonatinas which contain Alberti Bass Line parts. 

·         Create a Broken Chord or Arpeggio Bass Line from a simple given Bass Line changing pitch, duration and rhythm or by adding a simple melody line, using notes from the bass line and chords. 

·         Listen to songs by the pop group Genesis (not included within the unit for copyright reasons) which use Pedal Notes e.g. Abacab.

Enrichment

Learning could be enriched through:

·          Inviting local musicians, instrumental teachers or members of bands who play a bass instrument e.g., bass guitar, double bass, cello, trombone, tuba, bassoon etc. to provide a short demonstration within lessons of construction, sound production and playing techniques of their instrument.

·          Watching recorded performances or concerts of bass guitar players “in action” exploring the relationship of the bass guitar to other instruments within the ensemble/band.

·          Watch and listen to (live) performances of groups of male singers classifying the different male voice types and clefs used and identifying the bass singing voice.

·          Watch online videos of famous bass singers e.g., Willard White performing in different contexts e.g., live concert performances, operas etc. 

Future Learning

Pupils could go on to:

• Learn further examples of African songs, chants and spirituals.
• Relate music to real festivals such as harvest, Mardi Gras, Passover or Ramadan.

Enrichment

Learning could be enriched through:

·          Arranging a workshop for students to experience the richness and excitement of African Drumming either in school or externally

·          Attend a concert where percussive music from other cultures is being performed

·          Perform compositions in assembly to contribute to international ethos at school e.g. “Black Lives Matters Day”